Thursday, September 01, 2005

Mountjoy on Gays

Assemblyman John Laird, D-Santa Cruz, was curious. His bill, AB 1400, had just passed on the Assembly floor with 48 votes--one more than the number of Democrats in the Assembly.

Upon looking through the voting roll call, a surprised Laird discovered that Assemblyman Dennis Mountjoy, R-Monrovia, an ardent critic of gay marriage, had supported the bill, which amends the Unruh Civil Rights Act to include sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status or familial status to the list of categories of people protected from discrimination.

Currently, the Unruh Act only explicitly prohibits discrimination based on sex, race, color, religion, ancestry, national origin, age, disability or medical condition, though courts have ruled that the categories are merely examples and that the law should be interpreted more broadly.

"He must have thought it was my community college bill," laughs Laird.

Not so, says Mountjoy, who said that, "all of my votes are purposeful."

"I didn’t have a problem with the bill. I didn’t see it as giving special rights to that [the gay] community. We are not going to give them--or anyone--special rights."

After the vote on the floor, Assemblyman Mark Leno, D-San Francisco, who is the openly gay author of the controversial AB 849, a bill to legalize same-sex marriage, approached Mountjoy.

"Mr. Mountjoy, you’re a good man," Leno told his fellow lawmaker. Leno described Mountjoy as surprised and confused by the encounter.

On whether the vote was a mistake or a serious gesture, Leno said, "He clearly didn’t make use of the opportunity to amend his vote [before the end of session]."

The vote itself does come as somewhat of a surprise to legislative observers, particularly in light of Mountjoy’s passionate opposition to Leno’s same-sex marriage bill earlier this year, which he voted against.

At the same Mountjoy said of gay marriage, "They want my children to be taught that this is OK, that it is natural. I'm here to tell you that it's not OK. It's not natural. I will not have my children taught that."

Nevertheless, both Leno and Laird were happy to have the support of the conservative Assemblyman on the expansion of nondiscrimination statute to include sexual orientation and gender identity. The bill had earlier passed through the Senate along partisan lines and now awaits the governor's signature.

Somewhat tongue-in-cheek, Laird said, "I’m sure it’s the beginning of a torrent of Republican support for bills like that."